The cabinet has given final approval to the draft of “The Bangladesh National Cadet Corps (BNCC) Act-2016” and a proposal for ratification of the WTO agreement on trade facilitation. The approvals were given in the weekly meeting of the cabinet held at the cabinet room of Jatiya Sangsad with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair. Briefing reporters later at Bangladesh Secretariat, cabinet secretary M Shafiul Alam said the draft on BNCC proposed for giving legal shape to the organisation which is entrusted with the task of grooming youths from educational institutions as future leaders. The new law will give the organisation a legal shape to enroll members from the school, colleges and universities, he said. So far, the BNCC has been functioning under a circular of the Ministry of Defence and under of a provision of Bangladesh Territorial Force Act-1950, he added. Under the new law, Mr Alam said, a separate department namely ‘Department of Bangladesh National Cadet Corps’ will be constituted under the Ministry of Defence with its head office in Dhaka. A Director General with the rank of a Major General or Brigadier General will be the operational head of the department which will also have an advisory council headed by the secretary of the defense ministry. The advisory council will have representatives from the ministries of defence, education and home, armed forces division, army, navy and air force headquarters, Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, University Grants Commission (UGC), National University, Dhaka University, Open University, Technical Education Board and other educational institutions. Eligible students of the recognised colleges and universities having SSC and HSC or equivalent educational qualification would be considered for senior division while students of under SSC or equivalent educational qualification could be considered for junior division. The cabinet also approved a proposal for ratification of the ‘Protocol Amending the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organisation’ and draft of the WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation. Bangladesh would be the 82nd country to ratify the agreement decided in WTO Ninth Ministerial Conference in Bali, Indonesia in 2013 aimed at facilitation of trade among the countries. The cabinet secretary said the ratification would help getting support for expediting the movement of import and export goods, capacity building of the developing and least developed countries for trade facilitation and strengthen cooperation among tax authorizes of different countries. The cabinet was also informed about Prime Minister’s visit to Bulgaria and Saudi Arabia.
